Chartreuse Bull

Sleeping Giant Glossolalia; 2011

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In a recent issue of the Village Voice, an article by music journalist Christopher R. Weingarten suggested that New York City was in the midst of a "pigfuck" renaissance. The colorful term was first coined by critic Robert Christgau as a way to describe the misanthropic ruckus created by mid-1980s indie rock progenitors like Sonic Youth, Big Black, and the Butthole Surfers, among others. Weingarten revived the term in honor of a handful of like-minded New York area groups like the Men and White Suns. Brooklyn-based Vaz are another fine band in this sphere, but a couple of things separate them from their name-checked contemporaries. For one, the group has been around for over a decade, though Bull marks both their first album in five years and their first album as a trio. Second, before Vaz was formed, its members were part of a musical institution that helped shape the sound that's slowly coming back into vogue.

Back in the 1990s, members of Vaz were in North Dakota trio Hammerhead. While they weren't able to cash in for big bucks like Helmet, or stick around long enough to achieve elder-statesmen status like the Melvins, Hammerhead did carve out their own neglected little niche, albeit in a fashion that had more in common with their Touch and Go contemporaries-- Shellac, Jesus Lizard, etc.-- than any of their kissing cousins on AmRep.

When two-thirds of Hammerhead-- vocalist/guitarist Paul Erickson and drummer Jeff Moordian-- went on to form Vaz following the former's break-up, they hit the ground running on 2001's Demonstrations in Micronesia. Displaying a melodic knack that Hammerhead only hinted at, and managing to punch even harder despite not having a bassist, the album found the duo nearly matching the ferocity and focus of their Load Records labelmates Lightning Bolt, all while barbing their hooks with just the right amount of paranoia and menace (thanks to Erickson's reverb-and-doom-laden vocal stylings). Such an accomplishment, coming when it did, earned them the adoration of a passionate few and, sadly, little else. Their subsequent releases, prior to Bull, didn't pack nearly the same punch, exchanging the stylistic precision of their first album for a hit-and-miss see-what-happens wanderlust that, while enjoyable in its own right, wasn't nearly as effective-- check out "Give Us the Creeps", from Dying to Meet You, for one such oddball digression.

If the raucous and raunchy Bull takes after any previous Vaz record, it's thankfully Micronesia. With second guitarist Tyler Nolan as its third member, the band muddies up their sound in the best possible way. The album comes off like it was recorded for a cassette release, but that sonic crudeness is a plus in this scenario. Nolan and Erickson don't complement each other as guitar players so much as antagonize or taunt. When Moordian enters the fray, he does so with reckless abandon, setting a breakneck pace that he's seemingly perpetually in danger of losing. Yet despite of all these chaotic collisions, Vaz never veers off-course, instead banging out no-hold-barred rock tunes that mete their righteous fury with a sense of song. They're still nowhere near being the Next Big Thing, but with this record getting slightly more exposure, and with a slew of like-minded contemporaries banging the same drum, there's a good chance another Vaz album might come a little quicker next time.